Global poverty is falling, so what\'s the problem?
By Global Public Square staff
Watching countries from around the world grow and
prosper, we tend to assume that global poverty is falling.
And in fact, the World Bank says that in 1981 nearly half of
the world\'s citizens were impoverished, that is, they lived
on less than $1.25 a day. And today, less than a fifth of the
world\'s population lives in poverty. In raw numbers, that
translates to a 40 percent drop from about 2 billion to 1.2
billion people.
But when we dig deeper, it‟s clear the picture is more
murky. Put simply, most of the reduction in global poverty
has to do with one country – China. Take it out of the
equation and the numbers look very different. Let\'s go
back to 1981. Back then, China accounted for 43 percent
of the world\'s poor. The other major contributors were
South Asia, with 29 percent, and sub-Saharan Africa, with
11 percent. Fast forward just a decade, and you\'ll see that
China\'s share of the world\'s poor began to drop. The trend
continues through the 2000s. By 2010, China accounted
for only 13 percent of the world\'s impoverished population.
South Asia\'s share had jumped to 42 percent, while sub-
Saharan Africa\'s share tripled, to 34 percent.
The World Bank data shows that the total number of
impoverished Chinese declined by nearly 680 million
people in the last three decades. That\'s about 95 percent
of the total global decline. By registering double digit
growth for three decades, Beijing has transformed the
fortunes of a poor nation within a generation. That\'s
amazing, but it tells you that in the rest of the world,
progress has been much, much slower – if there\'s been
progress at all.
(Retrieved and adapted from http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/01/globalpoverty- is-falling-so-whats-the-problem/?hpt=hpbn2. Access on May 01st, 2013)
In the text, the authors are questioning:
